Question 90: Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous?

Answer: Some sins in themselves and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others.

DAY 1:

In our society today, and sadly it is reflective in the church, many people will not confess the fact that there are degrees of sin. While with their mouths they may say, “All sin is sin”, meaning that all sin is equal, their practice is much different. For instance, people obviously see the difference of degree of sin in fornication and adultery. They see the difference of hitting someone out of anger and pulling a gun out and killing them. Though both of these illustrations are at their roots the same, the way in which one is manifested over the other is clear. Therefore, let’s take some time to look at how God speaks about the fact that some sins are more heinous than others.

First, let’s look at John 19:11. The context of the passage is that Jesus has been brought before Pilate to be tried and executed by the Jewish leaders (18:28-32). However, we find that Pilate could find no fault with Jesus. There was nothing that he could see that Jesus had done that was worthy of death. However, we find that Pilate wanted to get out of this situation. History tells us that Pilate did not have a very good public relationship with the Jews. They had constantly cornered him into doing things he did not necessarily want to do. But, to keep the peace he did it anyway. So in this instance we find that Pilate, though he can find nothing to charge Christ with, seeks to gain the appeasement of the Jews while he withholds execution.

First, we see that Pilate attempts to make an exchange. We see in verse 39 and 40 that Pilate has the idea of offering to release a prisoner to the people as was their custom each year at Passover. He thought by offering Jesus and a man named Barabbas that the people would certainly choose Barabbas, since he was a robber and quite possibly he was one who had led a previous insurrection against the Romans and was captured (Luke 23:19). However, the people called for the release of Barabbas.

Pilate must have had been confused that the people would have wanted a murderer and thief loosed among them and a man who had done no wrong to be executed like a criminal. So he sought appeasement though another avenue. Maybe if he beats Jesus and shows him to the crowd then the people might have some pity for Jesus and think it enough. In 19:1 we see that Pilate took and had Jesus scourged. Jesus had predicted such scourging prior to His coming to Jerusalem. This act was where the prisoner was fastened naked to a pillar and beaten severely. We have often hear of the cat of nine tails, which would be the leather whip with leather cords that contained different types of sharp objects (metal, bone, glass, etc.) at the ends that would “mark” the victim. This instrument would rip entire sections of flesh from ones body. The soldier who would administer the scourgings was well trained so that he would do the most damage without actually killing the victim. This would not only be inflicted upon the recipients back, but because he was naked would touch practically every part of his body.

Not only this, but they attempted to humiliate Jesus by placing a crown of thorns upon His head and a purple robe across his bloody body and in mock fashion bowing down to Him and hailing Him as King of the Jews (vss. 2-3). These were tremendously heinous sins. Pilate sinned by playing to the crowd rather than administering justice. The soldiers sinned by failing to offer proper reverence and adoration of the Son of God. The Jewish leaders sinned in their actions of turning Jesus over to the authorities and bearing false witness against Him. The people sinned by calling for the crucifixion of an innocent man and the release of a guilty man.

Yet though all of these sins were terrible and carried great and eternal consequences, there was one that was considerably worse. Verse 11 quotes the Lord Jesus saying that the “one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.” John MacArthur offers the possibility that it could not only refer to Judas but possibly to Caiaphas the high priest because of the manner in which he turned Jesus over to the Romans. However, I believe it is quite clear that Judas is in mind. Here is some of my thinking in this regard. Judas’ sin was extremely great because he pretended to be Christ’s friend. He was a disciple of His. There was incredible evidence of who Jesus Christ was before him everyday. He witnessed things that most of the human race had never seen: the incarnate Son of God ministering to those of His creation. Yet in all of this, Judas chose to betray the Lord for the price of a mauled slave (Matt. 26:15; 27:9; Ex. 21:32) . The Scripture tells us that Judas was a thief and we have discussed that a thief’s heart is trained by his covetousness, which is idolatry. Therefore, Judas becomes the ultimate example of an apostate. His sin is greater than all the others involved because of his deceitfulness. Even though he had made a pact with the Jews to deliver Christ he still tried to appear as a true disciple. This seems to be the implicit illustration that is given about the church at Laodicea (Rev. 3:16).

Apostasy is a great sin, if not the greatest sin in measure. Notice what the writer of the Hebrews says, “Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? (Heb. 10:29).” The writer bears out in verse 28 that a person who rejected Moses’ law died without mercy upon the testimony of two or three witnesses. Now we have seen that the people under the law were under the old covenant, but our covenant is better because it came by the blood of the Son of God (Heb. 8:6; 12:24). However, if a person hears the testimony of Christ and of His perfect atonement and rejects it (in the case of the book of Hebrews, it was to return to the ways of the old covenant with its animal sacrificial system) he counts the blood of the Son of God to be something common (koinos koy-nos’). This is the term used to speak of those things that were considered Levitically unclean. They do not see the death of Christ as something to be desired. Rather they see the preaching of the cross of Christ as foolishness (1 Cor. 1:18). Is that sin of apostasy not incredibly heinous? Yes it is and it is worthy of much worse punishment than simply violating the law. Now that the New Covenant has come, it brings with it the greatest light, that of the gospel, but the gospel also brings the greatest warnings of judgment for failing to believe the light offered in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, we can see that Judas was one who was not a wayward brother. Now was he a believer who just simply needed to repent. He was in fact a son of perdition and a child of the devil. His sin was great and the punishment for it is eternally destructive to his soul.

How do you view the death of Christ? Is it precious to you? Are you truly grateful for His work? Would you rather sell Him out for money? Power? A big house? An adulterous affair? A lie? Examine your heart today. Are you in the faith? Are you one who is lukewarm or are you a genuine believer? May God grant mercy and grace to those who desperately need it.

DAY 2:

Is God truly angry about sin? Is he angry with those who commit sin and remain unrepentant? Will He really judge those who sin and will that judgment be just for the sins commited? The answer to all these questions is “Yes”. Hosea 12:14 tells us that Ephraim provoked the Lord to anger because of his sin. Psalm 7:11 tells us that God is angry with the wicked everyday. Habbakuk tells us this about God, “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness.” Jude reminds us of His judgment foretold long ago, “Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." The Lord is serious about sin and He will be just in His dealings with sinners.

With this in mind, we have a question before us this week that in very practical terms asks, “Are there some sins that are worse than others?” In our society and even in many churches the call has come for tolerance of sin, even open sin, because “sin is sin” and “we all sin, so let’s not judge one another.” Though these statements are true, it is the mindset behind the statements that is a concern. Some people think murdering someone is equal in its degree of heinousness in the sight of God to hating someone in your heart. While we did deal with that in our discussion of the law, let’s see where the distinction is made. Yes, Jesus did declare that one had already committed murder in his heart. Yet we can see, not only the consequences of carrying out the act of murder, but of its effects. From man’s perspective the only one hurt by hatred in one’s heart is the one hating. However, God is offended. His law has been broken. Yet, if the man actually acts on his hatred and takes the life of another, then his sin has effected him, violated God’s law, and brought the consequences of the hate in his heart to a reality in the lives of others. Do we not see that the act of murder is far more heinous and adds to the sinfulness of the individual than the hate in his heart? By this I do not mean to make light of hatred in the heart. Jesus surely didn’t make light of it either, yet we recognize even in our society that hatred is wrong, yet we don’t execute people for it. We do however execute people for murder. This is just and a lawful society wants to maintain prospective of crimes and the punishment for them.

God does as well. He is just. He administers justice according to the crime. All sin deserves death. However, in the eternal state of the damned we tend to see degrees of punishment for sins. For instance we made mention of Hebrews 10:29 in the previous lesson. We can also hear the words of Christ from Luke 12, especially in verses 47-48. There we can see that those who know God’s will, but fail to do it, their sin is worthy of more severe punishment than those who did not know God’s will, yet possibly sinned in the same ways. Jesus spoke of it being easier for Sodom and Gomorrah to endure the Day of Judgment than for those who lived in His day that rejected Him (Mark 6:11). We could give many other examples of the levels of sin and their worthiness of God’s just and righteous punishment.

However, today let’s look at Ezekiel 8. God has just said that He will pour out judgment upon Israel for her rebellion and for her sins (chapter 7). In verse 23 he speaks to the people through Ezekiel using the metaphor of a chain, which speaks to the captivity that they will be led into in the land of Babylon. God has pronounced that judgment will fall on Israel. There will be no holding back the judgment that has been reserved for them. In 7:9 God says, “My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; I will repay you according to your ways, and your abominations will be in your midst. Then you shall know that I am the LORD who strikes.” God is very serious about the sins of men. As the Spirit of God takes Ezekiel by vision to Jerusalem and shows him the “door of the north gate of the inner court” (8:3), we see that there has been an image erected that provokes the Lord to jealousy. Now God could easily do away with the image Himself and destroy it and show His power over it like He did with the pagan god Dagon (cf. 1 Sam. 5:3-7). But Israel are God’s people. They were the ones who received His deliverance and His special revelation. They had been instructed by the mouth of God, the finger of God, and the prophets of God. There was absolutely no excuse for them to sin against God through idolatry. So God would deal with his people appropriately because the idol diminished the glory of God, His temple and His worship.

However, their idolatry led to “even greater abominations” (vs. 6). Ezekiel saw that seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel and Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan had gathered in secrecy for idol worship. We note that Ezekiel comes to the door of the outer court and there he digs into the wall and finds a door, which when he goes in, he sees idols pictured all on the walls and he also finds these elders involved in the worship of these idols through censers filled with incense (vs. 11). What makes this sin especially great is two fold. First Jaazaniah has not remembered his father. Shaphan gave instruction to the young king of Israel Josiah concerning the law of God, especially concerning idolatry (2 Kings 22:8-11). We also see what that word did for Israel in chapter 23 of 2 Kings. Jaazaniah had sinned a great sin and had turned away from the words of the law and had turned aside to idols. Not only had he done this, but he also led others in it when he should have known better. To make matters worse the second thing that is brought out is that they were so foolish as to think that because they did these rituals in the dark and because they had not seen the fierceness of the wrath of God poured out on them that God either did not see it or was no longer in Israel. Well, for sure the glory of the Lord was not apparent in Israel, but God did see. The Scripture says, “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Keeping watch on the evil and the good. (Prov. 15:3).” Even what goes on within the darkness of the heart to man is revealed unto God and will be revealed in the judgment (1 Cor. 4:5). God is a spirit and therefore He is not limited by physical sight, but even sees things done under the cover of darkness.

Yet, there are even greater abominations than these taking place (vs. 13). In verse 14 we find that Ezekiel is brought to the north gate of the LORD’s house and finds the women weeping for Tammuz. Tammuz was the pagan son god of Ishtar. His legend is parallel to that of the Lord Jesus, yet is based upon fables rather than historical evidence. Ishtar was thought to have been impregnated by the gods and thus Tammuz would not have a physical father, although many of the Babylonian stories in regard to Ishtar and Tammuz picture them as lovers. This story goes along the same line as that of the Egyptian fables regarding Osiris and Isis. However, the story is also big among the Grecians. In their story the names are Adonis and Venus. Tammuz was killed by a boar and so Ishtar wept for him. However, he is resurrected and so there was joy in his resurrection. This was the ancient fertility god worship. This was in parallel with the autumn/winter cycle which brings about “death” in the vegeatation, but in the spring “returns to life”. These women had defiled the temple area by not being in the court of the women and also by engaging in this act of idolatry.

Finally we see in verse 15 & 16 that the abominations were greatest in the temple itself, where 25 men were engaged in idolatry. These men probably composed the leaders of the people, as well as, the priests. They were neglecting the Holy of holies and had their backs turned to God, while prostrating themselves before the sun. They engaged in the worship of the sun. Therefore they corrupted themselves in the worship of the creation rather than the prescribed worship of the Creator. This was the greatest of all these sins because it was done in the place where the very presence of God dwelt among the people of His choosing. They had sinned a great sin and were without excuse.

Do you understand the difference in degrees of sin? Do you presume upon the grace of God when you sin? Have you followed a pattern of idolatry like that of the people of Israel? May God grant us repentance from all sin and may we seek to guard ourselves against presumptuous sins.

Scripture: Ezekiel 8:13; John 19:11; 1 John 5:16.